Klaus Hartmann: 10 years since the death of the President, our friend and comrade Slobodan Milošević

Today we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of our President, comrade and friend Slobodan Milošević.

We mourn for Slobodan Milošević. We mourn for an extraordinary personality, a wise politician and a national and international hero. We send our love to his wife Mira, to his family, and we hope that they will soon be able to reunite again and we will have the family members safely back in our arms.

We protest most emphatically against the fact that his death is still not impartially unexamined. We demand an end of impunity of those who are responsible for his death, and the impunity of the war criminals who attacked and destroyed Yugoslavia.

As our Vice President and Attorney of ICDSM, Christopher Black from Canada, stressed in his actual statement:“The death of Slobodan Miloševićwas clearly the only way out of the dilemma the NATO powers had put themselves in by charging him before the Hague tribunal. The propaganda against him was of an unprecedented scale. The trial was played in the press as one of the world’s great dramas, as world theatre in which an evil man would be made to answer for his crimes. But of course, there had been no crimes, except those of the NATO alliance, and the attempt to fabricate a case against him collapsed into farce.”

The responsible persons of that phoney court named ICTY could not try to talk their way out of the fact that everybody could have knowledge regarding Mr. President’s state of health.

German Physicians and Therapists and made repeated submissions to safeguard the life of President Milošević. They wrote, for example:

“This way of dealing with a person whose life is – with all consequences – in your responsibility, can only be called irresponsible and leads to the questions of motives. It is in total contradiction to various documents and resolutions of the United Nations concerning the treatment of imprisoned persons. Those regulations should be fully recognized by representatives of UN institutions.

In the ongoing situation for which the ICTY is fully responsible, the only possible solution is to free Mr. Milošević from that health-and life-threatening situation and to release him in order that he may receive the necessary medical treatment. …”

Bu the Nato-Tribunal repeatedly denied a provisional release, without mentioning the ICDSM’s motion or requests. ICDSM attorney Ms. Tiphaine Dickson stated to the ICTY “that the current trial conditions constitute a threat to his life, that lack of adequate medical attention is tantamount to torture”. She added: “The ICDSM considers that it would be ‘inappropriate’ for the Chamber to wait until these trial conditions cause severe cardiac complications, stroke, or death before ‘considering favorably’ an application for provisional release. It is also ‘inappropriate’ to wait until Slobodan Milošević is on the verge of death before ‘favorably considering’ a request for specialized medical attention.”

At least the tribunal refused all appeals and urgent calls for medical treatment in Russia. His death is a direct result of that criminal treatment. But up to now, no one is held accountable for this crime. The dealing with the circumstances of his death is exactly the same as the dealing with our urgent requests before.

This is hardly surprising – because how many times have we heard that the murderers blame themselves? Chris Black recalled that the only demand for a public inquiry into the circumstances of his death came from Russia when Foreign Minister, Sergej Lavrov, stated that Russia did not accept the Hague tribunal’s denial of responsibility and demanded that an impartial and international investigation be conducted.

Today we reiterate our call on the United Nations, to all political forces and the international public: We need an immediate impartial, public and international inquiry into the entirety of the circumstances of the death of President Milošević.

President Milošević became a victim of a political, a judicial murder. As a prisoner of the criminal Nato he was a prisoner of war, a political prisoner. He stands alongside numerous other prisoners like Sacco and Vancetti, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Hans and Sophie Scholl, Ernst Thälmann, Angela Davis, Nelson Mandela and Mumia Abu Jamal.

It’s the fate of all those, who stand in the way of the empire and who were declared as the enemy. We are aware that the murder in The Hague was not the first attempt to kill President Milosevic, before that they tried to kill him by bombing his private living spaces.

The elections, followed by the coup d’état in Belgrade in October 2000 function on the principle which the Sponsor of Otpor, George Soros, explained two years later: “In ancient Rome, only the Romans could vote. Under world modern capitalism, only the Americans can vote. Brazilians, they do not vote”.

These true words should encourage all of us, especially in the dependent countries, to think about and to take decisive steps to get out of this trap. It should be clear to everyone that sneaking through the front of the enemy will be no solution, it’s impossible.

That’s why our call for an international inquiry of his death is a contribution to a world without wars. The aggression against Yugoslavia was a door opener war for the wars to follow. It was followed by Afghanistan and Iraq, Lebanon and Libya, Syria and the Ukraine. The dictators of the New World Order killed Saddam Hussein und Muammar alGaddafi as well.

The dictatorship of the New World Order requires absolute obedience of his servants otherwise they would face the dismantling of its states, wars, “colored revolutions” and “regime change”. The Nato-Aggression against Yugoslavia as well as the treatment of President Milošević was a revenge for his refusal to obey the dictatorship of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It was the revenge for his struggle for independence and against slavery.

Today the trees of Imperialism don’t grow endlessly into the heavens. Russia, China and the other BRICS-States are ready to give strong support or others who defend their national sovereignty against neocolonialism. A multipolar World Order is becoming reality. The tragedy of Yugoslavia in the 1990th was caused by the fact, that there were not such strong allies as nowadays.

Slobodan Milošević consistently fought for his ideals, for national sovereignty, self-determination and social justice as basic principles of human civilization. Nobody could break his beliefs, no one could bring him to his knees. For his values he stood up and gave his life. He and his struggle is a true example for all of us. This is the heritage we want and we will preserve.

In his spirit we continue fighting against imperialist wars, for international understanding and friendship with Russia!

Klaus Hartmann, Chairman of the Board of International Committee “Slobodan Milošević”, President of World Union of Freethinkers